If I'm demanding and have high standards, I'm happy about that.

I'm very good at compartmentalising my life. I did motor-racing for a while, stopped, didn't miss it. I did power-boat racing for a while, stopped, didn't miss it. I had such a good run at the BBC. I had a hell of a CV with arguably the greatest broadcasting organisation in the world. But I've never missed it since.

Contrary to the image of a neurotic man created in some quarters, I feel very much at peace with myself.

I don't really like those houses where someone's put up all their old football trophies and whatever; you know, what are they trying to prove?

I am not living in the past.

We must never forget that the cosmos exists solely to help those who want to help themselves. It is an incredibly powerful force and a wonderful friend for all who adopt a positive approach to life.

Water can communicate. It's communicating with us, it's communicating with other water.

I always have a giggle.

What's the point of life if we can't be positive, have fun and make the world a better place?

Believe it or not, I'm actually quite a private person.

You don't do everything in life in order to make money.

I'm the last person to claim that I'm sane.

I spent a lot of Saturday night on BBC television, being chased around by yellow rubber balls.

Belief and trust in the power of the Cosmos gives even the most chaotic life a new sense of order and purpose.

We've sussed that we've paid all this money to watch ourselves entertain ourselves. We have more members of the public on TV than on C&A's CCTV.

Reality shows have caused fatigue amongst the public.

I worked for the BBC for 30 years.

There are too many organisations - and the BBC is a fabulous organisation - that seem to think it's OK to badger, hector and threaten people.

If I was prime minister for a day the first thing I would do would be to close the border. Then we could work out how many people we've got here. Then you get people out who have committed crimes and you look at others who shouldn't be here. Nobody knows how many people we've got here.

We tried our damnedest to make it a special entertainment, but I'll admit I'm a contributor to the decline in TV standards.

There's this common sense idea that in order to appeal to the biggest number of people, you have to write something very general, but my experience is the more specific you make something, the more people respond to it, in a very odd way.

My mom never went to college, so she just assumed the writer identity, and that was always really inspiring to me. It's not something you need nine levels of education for. It's really an identity that you claim for yourself, and then you have to make yourself one.

My goal is always to make something unpredictable that feels inevitable in the end. It's getting harder to do that. Audiences are so sophisticated and so smart.

A novel is a relationship, you know? When you read a book, the writer has done half the work, and you're doing half the work. You're providing the imagination; the words are turning into pictures in your mind. There's an active relationship that's going on.